Questioning me

I haven’t been inspired to write lately, so I gladly asked to participate in this little question and answer exercise when Stacy offered the opportunity. The idea is this:

1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address, please.)
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The problem is that little miss smarty pants asked me some really tough questions. Jerk. So before I answer them, I ask that you don’t hold me to anything I write here. These are the best answers I could come up with at this moment, but they are by no means answers that will pass the test of time. In fact, I should fill this out again tomorrow and see how much my answers have changed. I won’t though. Because that’s boring.

1. Which is your most cherished childhood memory? How were you as a kid ?
I’ll answer the second part first. I was annoying. But not in the loud obnoxious kid kind of way. I was annoying because I was so fucking shy. I get around shy kids now and I’m like “oh my god get over it!” I see how frustrating it is for their parents to try to force them out of their shell, and I hate how I was totally that kid. I’m so sorry mom and dad! Not that I’m entirely beyond all shyness now, but holy hell, I was annoying back then.

Trying to come up with a childhood memory to share, all that surfaced were memories of my brother taunting me or me teasing my sisters. Which is strange because, while those things happened, I actually had a really happy childhood full of lots of fun with my siblings. So why, as I reminisce right now, can I only remember the time my brother told my me and my sisters that the devil lived in a hole in the ground right before trying to push us into said hole? Or the time my sister Andrea and I attended a neighbor girl’s  birthday party and I made everyone vote to send Andrea home because I didn’t want her there?

2. What was your favorite toy when you were a kid?
I had this mosaic game that I played with endlessly as a child. It was a plastic hexagon-shaped tray with colored plastic pieces that you fit inside to create designs. The pieces were like triangles with one point chopped off. I could spend hours fitting those pieces into colorful designs, then tearing it apart and doing it all over again.

It was kind of like that, except not quite. Close though. That little girl? Yeah that was so me. For hours. In fact, if the damn thing wasn’t $24, I might just buy it for myself now because I’m pretty sure I could still spend hours playing with those plastic pieces.

3. Why do women shave their armpits and men don’t?
Because society is crazy.

4. If you have to choose a movie title for your life story, what would that be and who would star as you?
I’m not good at catchy titles, especially ones that are supposed to sum up my life story, so I’d just call it “Shan” I think. That’s what a lot of people call me, and plus I’ve hear that movies with short titles are usually better.

Who would star as me in this movie? What, you want me to name someone? You want like a name? Oh, God, the pressure of a name. It’s definitely not going to be Liv Tyler thank you very much. I’d want it to be someone fabulous who flies just a little under the radar. Someone respectable and a little bit funky. Like Rachel McAdams.

Who is of course way more beautiful than me. But isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you cast someone to play you? Make yourself more beautiful and fabulous?

5. If you could have a luncheon with any three people (real of fictitious/ from any time period, dead or alive) , which three people would you choose and why?
Yeah right, like I could answer this question without months of careful consideration. To make it easier on myself I decided to pick three fictional characters from books I read last month. That should help narrow things down a little.

Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I find this character and the controversy surrounding her fascinating. Even before I got this question I had been thinking about how I’d like to meet Dagny and figure her out. (I’m only about a third of the way through the book, but I started it in December so it counts.)

The Man from The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I thought about inviting The Boy, but I don’t think he’d enjoy a luncheon with a bunch of adults. I want to draw from this man’s strength, determination and skill to survive.

Kurt Vonnegut from Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. This worked out perfectly because I would love to talk to Kurt Vonnegut, and he just happens to be a character in his own book which I just happened to finish in December. Thank you for writing yourself in KV, and I’m sad you won’t be writing anymore.